AutoCAD

AutoCAD is a really neat program that is very powerful, if used effectively. In my AutoCAD class, we were tasked with basically copying a different AutoCAD drawing - but all from scratch. It's quite the process, but it's also quite fun, which is why AutoCAD is one of my favorite classes this semester. Here's one of my drawings (incomplete, but getting there):

It's almost done - it just needs the dimensions of the road and whatnot to complete it. Of course, I haven't learned that yet, but when I do, I'll show my completed drawing.

Have a great day!

Casey

"A Short Interlude" revisited

Well, apparently the scammer union decided that USPS and UPS weren't working, as I found the following email in my spam folder today:

Never mind the fact that I've never even heard of or used "WhatsApp" before - that is a dead giveaway there. Also, notice that they want you to move the message into the inbox folder - as if they already knew that their email was going to be put into the spam folder. And of course, the big button "Play", that beckons you to press it and download who knows what virus or whatever. I do have to say, though, that this person does a much better job mimicking a real email and it actually looks somewhat genuine ("somewhat" being the key word). Nevertheless, I am not going to fall for it - and I don't think many people who got an email like this would fall for it either.

And the scam saga continues!

Casey

More College Stuff

Right now, I am sitting in a computer lab at Fresno State. It is 5:15, and I am waiting for a class to begin here in this lab at 6:00. I will be learning about AutoCAD - an extremely versatile computer program that is used widely in engineering and other fields. And, as professor Iley Ballinger (or just Iley, as he prefers to be called) says, "You MUST  learn AutoCAD if you want a job in engineering!" I'll be out of here at 9:00, and I will be ready to get back to the apartment and eat - VERY ready.

Monday is tied for my busiest day, and is my longest day. From 10 am-9 pm on Monday, I have classes. Corey has a very similar schedule, and we both get back to the apartment after 8:30.

It's hard to believe this is the 5th week I've been here. Only 13-ish weeks left in this semester! It's really hard to believe that I'm that far into this semester. It makes me feel that the end of it all is not far off - especially after advising earlier, where I reviewed my course plan and reviewed what I'd be doing over the next couple years.


God has certainly been good these first several weeks! We've been blessed through gifts, through safety, through prayer, through easy homework - we've been extremely blessed in everything. Huge thanks go to my family, for all their support in this process.

And as I wrap this very short post up - thank you all, in advance, for your prayers! They are always appreciated.

Casey

A Short Interlude

The other day, I looked at my spam folder in my email, and found the following email:

Three things I noticed: 1) I've never seen a USPS man ever use an @expostarter.com address; 2) I've never seen a manager ever put "manager" into his name - i.e. I've never seen anyone say "Manager Noah Wallace", just "Noah Wallace"; and 3) This person has bad English. Missing apostrophe in "couldn't", "to" and "you" connected ("toyou"), bad spelling/grammar in "to you address" ("to your address" would be correct), and "at 15th August" not "on August 15th".

Obviously fishy. Especially when they want you to open some link that goes to some unknown site. So it went into my spam folder - no harm done.

Well, obviously they think I'm gullible, because they tried it again not long after:

Maybe I like the name Michael Willis better? Hmm...I still don't think I'll click.

But, of course, they wouldn't leave me alone:

What cracked me up the most was the subject: "Unable to delivery". Yep, they don't have good grammar.

But of course, that won't satisfy them:

Maybe they think I'll take more kindly to FedEx scamming? And couriers instead of managers? Of course, the message body is still almost exactly the same, grammar errors and all.

Then, today I looked in my spam folder again, and sure enough:

FedEx and USPS didn't work, so now, it's on to cargo.usa! Never mind that the email address is an address from England...and they still think the package arrived at September 6th and not on September 6th...

If the scammer's goal was to make me laugh, he succeeded in his goal. If that wasn't - well, all I can say is that clicking his links was the last thing on my mind.

I hope you enjoyed that!

Casey

A Day in the Life of a College Student

7:20 – Corey’s alarm goes off. I wake up, look at the time, groan, and then doze for ten more minutes before I fully wake up and get up. After that, I wake up, get ready for the day, eat breakfast, do homework, go to the pool and use the free internet to check email, etc. After enough time has elapsed, I get ready to head off with Corey to the campus – a three mile ride away.

9:30/10:00 – Depending on the day, this is when my first classes start. Let’s use Thursday as an example. After biking to campus (arriving at about 9:20), Corey and I split up, then I head to my first class – good ol’ humanities. Dr. Thornton will be sure to give you at least one rant per class about either: the goodness of GMOs; the fact that Americans have it easy; or, the stupidity of rabid environmentalism and the praising of industry and modern technology and agriculture. Otherwise, you get to hear a lot about Odysseus and his travels, which is actually really interesting. This class lasts until 10:45, at which point I leave for the Honor’s Office, which has free food, free computer labs, and studying space, as well as a quiet environment that makes it the perfect choice for a study area. I stay there doing homework until 1:40, at which point I head out the door to my next class which starts at 2:00. Corey has a similar method of study, but since he doesn’t have access to the Honor’s office, he likes to study in a computer lab in the engineering building in between classes – at least when he isn’t tutoring.

2:00-3:15 – CE85 (Intro to Civil Engineering). This class teaches you everything you need to know about civil engineering (though I dare say it doesn’t teach you everything you need to know about practicing civil engineering). If you want to know what a civil engineer does, then go no further! Dr. Wright will show you the ropes – unless he has a meeting during class period, in which case he’ll rush in, put a DVD about dams or some other type of structure (the movies are incredibly interesting), then rush out immediately after the movie starts. He's a very capable professor, though extremely busy. After the class ends, it’s back to the Honor’s office!

3:15-4:40 – More time at the Honor’s office. More time to do homework/study/eat free food!

5:00 – off to CE20 (Engineering Mechanics – statics) where Dr. Monfaredian will teach you all you need to know about keeping an object static! He’ll vector you and vector you until you dream about calculating resultant vectors. Soon we’ll be getting into the good stuff – so far it’s been mostly review. He obviously knows his material - and knows it well.

6:15 – CE20 ends, and 45 minutes until the Honors meeting (colloquium). But the Honor’s office closes at 5:00! It was quite a dilemma - which I solved today by going to the colloquium classroom 45 minutes early. Better early than late! Also, if you need, you can write statics problems on the whiteboard if you need any practice – at least until people start to arrive.

7:00 – Honor’s colloquium, which on the schedule is supposed to go until 9:00, but thankfully doesn’t. Today, I got out at 7:30, and that, apparently, is typical. Then, it’s back on the bike for the ride back to the apartment!

7:45 – Back at the apartment. Eat dinner, talk to Corey, do homework; if we have time, we’ll play a game, etc. Then, I take a shower, and go to bed somewhere between 10 and 11, preparing for another day on campus.

This basic pattern is typical for all my days – bike to campus, class, Honor’s office, class, Honor’s office, class, bike ride to apartment. Thankfully, I can't say any of my classes are bad...I've got good professors who are all nice.

That is my typical day at college (*virtual bow*). I hope you enjoyed it!

Casey

Another school-related Blog Post...

Yesterday, I had a lull in my studies, so I used the time to read some Answers in Genesis material on their website. It is always good to read about the things that I am learning in my studies through a biblical viewpoint – especially because Answers in Genesis uses the science that is taught in my classroom under the old-earth evolutionistic guise as evidence for a Creator.

One particular thing I thought interesting was the fact that there are comets in our solar system. Now, comets are basically “dirty snowballs” of ice and particulates. Each time they near the sun, a portion of their mass vaporizes. Thus, after each pass by the sun, comets get smaller. Comets can only last so long before they vanish completely or become asteroids. This poses a huge problem for those who believe that the solar system is somewhere near 5 billion years old. If this was the case, there would be no comets! They would have long burnt out.

But, of course, there are still comets. But did that stump the evolutionists? Of course not! You see, when you are the prevailing ideology, you can make up evidence and still get people to believe you. So, they came up with two huge fields of comet material: the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. The Kuiper belt supposedly lies between Mars and Jupiter, and the Oort cloud supposedly resides somewhere past Pluto.

Why does this help the evolutionists? Well, by having these two bodies of comet stuff, the comets that are burning out can be replenished by new comets (that are pushed out of orbit by planets and start the normal comet orbit). Never mind that there is no evidence for the Kuiper belt and especially the Oort cloud...

What gets me is how many evolutionists claim to follow the scientific method, but then make up ideas and immediately push them to “theory” standing without testing. My engineering professors would have a fit if they heard about this (well, maybe not if it pertains to evolution)! It is certainly bad science. What I find worse, though, is how they turn around and call creationism bad science or non-science (or pseudoscience, as one class I avoided put it) when it is deeply based in evidence and good scientific practices.

The only reason evolution is prevalent is because it is a way to explain the universe without believing in a God who created the world. Sinful man does not want to be accountable to a God who created them and could snuff them out in an instant, if that was His will!

That’s it for now…more to come!

Casey