Hello world,

If you didn't know Mike and myself have been keeping the house from burning down in Ann Arbor. On Monday we both started working on our research project for the month of May. It's through the AOSS department (Atmospheric Oceanic and Space Sciences), a department dominated by weathermen and astronauts. The Air Force Research Laboratory based out of Dayton, Ohio is paying our team of undergraduates (and a few graduates) $50,000 to solve their “SATCOM On the Move” scenario. What’s the catch you ask? We only have a month to do this and we are competing against a group of students from Ohio State University given the same problem. Clearly the time constraint is all we are worried about because honestly, it’s OSU.

For the few of you out there who aren’t experts on satellite network terminals, let me tell you what we are trying to solve. Currently they have cool things called network terminals that look like laptops. You put them on the ground anywhere in the world, turn them on, they lock onto a satellite, and you get internet/phone/texting. A lot of news stations just plug their video equipment right into the terminal and broadcast from remote locations. The only problem is that once they lock on to the geosynchronous satellites (always in the same spot in the sky with respect to us revolving) if moved they lose uplink and then you can’t check Facebook. We have to make an antenna that stays locked on while moving/doing aerobics. A person has to carry the device, and it also needs to work on top of a car. The competition is in June so it is crunch time. Here I was thinking school just finished and all my thinking was done for the next four months.

If that doesn’t make you want to be an engineer than nothing will.

In other, cooler news, I just got a new camera yesterday so I decided to document our day at work today.

For those who still haven’t seen our house (looking at you Michelle), here is the best house on 827 Sylvan. It was definitely Pink at some point in its life. Oh and our grass is really high, so Catherine if you are following our blog, please send someone otherwise a hedge maze will be made.

Next up is before and after getting on the bus in the morning. First is looking down Hoover which leads to the one and only Big House. Then we get to work in the Space Research building.

Here is our nerdy lab with geeky double-monitor computers.

The terminal we are testing. They usually go for about $3000 and it costs about $10/min to connect to the satellite network. The radiation is accurately depicted by the draw function on my camera.

If you were salivating over the cuisine the Leskars have been enjoying in Las Vegas, then take a look at how kings eat in Ann Arbor. On the menu today was wheat pita stuffed with spicy hummus and blazin’ buffalo chicken from Kroger. The next course was a tasty little chewy which oddly was tasty, little, and chewy. There were also pretzels and triscuits but they didn’t last long enough to be photographed.

In other news, Mike and myself finally discovered the Askwith Media Library. Any movie/tv series you could ever think of available for free three day rentals. We have already watched Foot Fist Way, Undeclared (tv series), A Clockwork Orange, Oldboy, and Twilight Samurai. To be watched tomorrow: Amores Perros and City of God.

Stay sweet,

-Brian