2013 Baja - Week 2

Well, I successfully completed the sponsorship proposal on time last week. It came right down to the wire, but I think draft one is a winner: http://db.tt/22IrPnlY

This week could be interesting; I may be starting a new job as a contract SolidWorks designer. We shall see. I need to write a modular cover letter for the sponsorship proposal so that it can be personalized for each contact we establish and I also need to find ten or so companies to contact for sponsorship. Our next meeting is in two weeks, so I need to make some progress on the steering design as well.

Stay dirty!

2013 Baja: It begins

Last Saturday was the first meeting of the season for the 2013 Bearcats Baja Racing Team. This meeting was pretty basic; we talked about general design parameters and limitations, goals for the year, lessons learned from last year, and also talked about sponsorship. It was a good meeting - I feel much better about the buy-in from the team now. Our next meting will be in three weeks.

This week my primary task is to get a sponsorship brochure/package/thing together so we can start asking for money. We need to raise something like $32,000 - at least - to fully fund the team this season. I'm in contact with a couple of people to get a logo designed for the team. I really like what Bearcat Motorsports (our FSAE team) did with theirs, but I want to be original as well. We'll see how that turns out.

It's looking like it'll be a good year, but there's a long way to go yet! I plan to post something each week for my own benefit, just keeping track of accomplishments and deadlines and the like, so that I have a record for myself and for future team leaders. Did I mention I'm the Team Manager/Chief Engineer?

Back in the saddle...

Elizabeth the Field Commander

Picture links to a photoset on Flickr of the Finals Competition this past weekend at Kings.

Yeah, its old...

- but I thought you'd enjoy it anyway. This is from the beginning of this year (2009):

Off to Adventure

Been a while, huh?

So, I guess my blog has fallen by the wayside a bit since I returned to UC. For the best I suppose; engineering school requires all my attention. Here's something I threw together for my Twitter profile, a UC ROTC themed background. If you want it, and/or want it to say something else, here is the GIMP .xcf file.

Phil the Camp Counselor

Dad

Fun Times at the YSM

Civil War

Red Bell Pepper

Fuzzballs

<24 hr old baby birds. In my front yard.

Having a Blast

Irony

I was filling out this application with Home Depot this evening and part of the process is this big survey with a bunch of questions like this one on it. This particular one stuck me as hilarious.

Wood Shavings

These are the residue of my brother's woodworking habit.

Some sort of flower

Old Glory

Dad, the tired lumberjack.

It's hard to take a picture when your nose won't stop running, and other tales.

Once upon two weeks ago, some tree species decided the time had finally come to reproduce and promptly began spewing pollen at a prodigious rate. Not wanting to out-done, thousands of other trees followed suit. As it happens, apparently I'm highly allergic to this particular tree's pollen. Consequently I've spent the past weeks with a tissue at my nose, which is continuing to run at rates that would drain a lake in short order. In a related matter, I'm also badly dehydrated, as all the water I drink seems to convert instantly to snot and then proceed to run out of my nostrils. So yeah, bad couple of weeks over all. There is a mountain of used Kleenexes surrounding my trash can in my room from me throwing 'em in that general direction at three in the morning. Blegh...stupid allergies.

/Insert snot Haiku here, when I can think straight again.

What needs fixin'?

I wrote an email to Blackfive, a military-themed blog widely read by military personnel, seeking ideas for my senior design project. Hopefully we'll get some good responses back:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/05/ask-an-infantryman.html

Went for a ride on my Blast today. Good times. Didn't even fall over once!

Concrete Arch

Concretely Abstract

The Departed

థిస్ సేన్తెన్స్ ఇస్ ఇన్ తెలేగు, ఈఫ్ ఐ దిద్ తాత కర్రెక్ట్లీ అన్య్వయ్...

Mockingbird

Spring Beauty

(Claytonia virginica)


Wildflower's scent
Drifting on springtime air
A beautiful day

Send Me - Army tribute

And the latest victim of the recession is...

...me. I was laid off from my job at Midwest Connector Co. today, as the business has been struggling badly for the past few months. This is a sad thing, especially since I'm enrolled at UC at the moment, so my ability to find employment of a similar caliber and flexibility is somewhat limited.

If you want to hire me as a photographer, that would be awesome and I'm sure we can get something worked out. Leave a comment here letting me know what you have in mind (event, portrait, etc.), or send me an email: rogersj3 @ gmail.com (without the spaces, spam prevention measure).

Happy recession,
James

UC ROTC Mil Sci 103 09S

This is the Military Science 103 Spring 2009 class, outside on Lab day preparing to get oriented on using a compass. Bu dum chsh.

Springtime is Pure

Survivor? Really??

I just received this email from campus security. Usually these messages are to alert the UC community that someone got their stuff jacked or got mugged walking home, off campus, in the middle of the night - in short, for stupid and preventable things. This, however, takes the cake:

On April 14, University of Cincinnati Police received a report of an inappropriate touching incident that occurred on Friday, April 3. The survivor reports that she was sleeping in her bed when the suspect, an invited guest, inappropriately touched her several times. The police and the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) are working with the survivor as she decides on the next steps to take.

The University of Cincinnati's Sexual Offense Response Team (SORT) regularly informs the community...yadda, yadda, yadda.

Can one really claim to have survived being "touched several times?" Is that really a life threatening situation? Not to mitigate the justified sense of violation, but to call someone a survivor who invited another back to their domicile only to discover that 'whoops! - he's a cad with no moral compass!' is a little ridiculous.

Some Sort of Butterfly

Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die

Matsuo Basho

Tomorrow

A distracted mind
Wonders as it dozes off
What tomorrow holds

Lazy Day

Someone buy this for me now!!! [snorgtees]

Just dandy, thanks for asking!

So I spent some more $$$ that I don't really have...

...but now I have this:

Bonus: the snazzy leather case it is in has these little magnets in the corners, so it stays closed and - consequently I hope - not scratched up.

The morning glories
bloom, securing the gate
in the old fence

- Matsuo Basho

Shootin' the Breeze