Recently

[MattyN 2]

Today I just returned from the American Institute of Chemical Engineering conference in Austin, TX, (hence my inactivity since last week). A group of students from my school created a small car running on a hydrogen fuel cell for a competition at the conference. We came in 5th place at the national conference, qualifying our team of students for the International competition in Scottland. I presented a poster on my research on "Novel Micro to Pico-scale in vitro Protein Synthesis of Luciferase." (Luciferase is the enzyme in fireflies that causes them to glow, I'm producing it at really small volume reactions outside of the cell). The poster went well, I talked to a good number of colleges, which is why I'm now applying to Arizona State University, and had a great time in Austin.

Tell us about any cool stuff you've done lately or comment on other people's trips/experiences.

[Swing Voter 1]

Ummm, I wrote a ten page final exam for my U.S. History and Global History classes, had twin boys, and had my nephew move in with me.

[SSVegeta123243 1]

i went to a ravens game sunday night they rock yeaaaah

[Trinhmaster 0]

I burned things that reminded me of Bush.

[SSVegeta123243 1]

thats not safe what about the bushes

[Swing Voter 1]

I burned things that reminded me of Bush.

Why stop their, go for the real thing!!!!!!!!!!

[SSVegeta123243 1]

your lucky ashcroft is gone swing

[Swing Voter 1]

Yep, I am celebrating by putting a poster of Bush with horns and a forked tail in my window! I have my freedom back! I can finaly say, damn you Bush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[1876 0]

I have begun a free speech protest on campus. Our progressive newspaper is being denied funds because of its political point of view, and my campus is about to pass a ban preventing us from using relgious services to fulfill our volunteerism requirement (it violates a lot of case law and its really complex). So, Ive worked about 15 hours on it the last 2 days, and its going to be a long weekend.

[Swing Voter 1]

progressive? unless you made a shift to the left that is not a word that even minded republicans try to steal from the left. or does the paper have liberal views?

[K-uglen 2]

Well, seeing as this is a forum preoccupied with politics, I've been helping a lot with a campaign on my university, where there will be elections on November 18th.

[Hardrightconservative 5]

All I can say is too many elections we have had three here in Alberta and I am getting worn out. I am also finishing my M.A. Thesis and doing consulting work.

[the_rick87 1]

I'm applying to college.

It really sucks

But senior year is sweet

[SSVegeta123243 1]

don't go to duke i hear they eat people there

[the_rick87 1]

Wow, I completely believe you

[SSVegeta123243 1]

the life u save may be your own

[1876 0]

I have this attachment to our constitution, and as such I have a strong belief in the freedom of the press. The flipside (the on campus progressive newspaper) is having funding denied to it because of its stance. Not only does this violate the letter of the law (Regents of UW v. Southworth, Rosenberger v. Regents of UVA), it also violates the spirit of the law, by limiting the expression of people on campus. I stand up for the FlipSide because even though I don't agree with it, they have a right to say what they believe. I am also an avid reader, because it because it challenges me in my thinking, very similarly to how this forum does (whenever we make intelligent posts, of course.)

[SSVegeta123243 1]

The flipside (the on campus progressive newspaper) is having funding denied to it because of its stance

what is it's stance?

[1876 0]

It is a generally progressive newspaper. It advocates large policies (such as universal health care), as well as smaller policies (such as changes to our book rental system).

[SSVegeta123243 1]

so the paper is losing it's funding because of it's stand on book rental?

maybe the school is losing money and this is just a budget cut

[Paul Drye 0]

I've spent the last week tying up loose ends on an SF role-playing game setting. I've done it before for Steve Jackson Games, but this is my first attempt at going solo for publication. With any luck it should be going out to beta test by the end of this weekend, and be published before the new year.

[MattyN 2]

Wow, that's neat.

[JoSpiv 5]

What's the game about? And that must bee an amazing job

[Paul Drye 0]

What's the game about? And that must bee an amazing job

It's barrel-full-of-monkeys fun, to the point that I don't mind the scandalously low royalty cheques. Most of the time

This one is called "Brave New Worlds", an attempt to do 50s and 60s style "serious" space opera (like the Larry Niven "Known Space" stories), for d20 and updated to what we know about science now. Kind of like what Allen Steele and Jack McDevitt are doing in written SF, only for role-playing games. Or if you played the old Traveller or the somewhat-less-old 2300AD, like that only for the year 2004 instead of 1978 and 1988 respectively.

Small universe (just fifteen human worlds so far, though there are other species exploring the stars further out), fairly tame advanced technology (comparable what you see in the Alien series of movies), and a lot of political intrigue as the world powers in 2104 scramble into space and maneuver for advantage -- none of this "United Earth" and world peace junk for me, thanks!

There's some basic setting documents on my website (Antares Station) for people to download, though there's going to be a proper twenty-page promotional freebie up there in a few weeks -- what's there now is just some rough sketches from the beginning of the project a few months back.