What do you call a pun that isn't a pun?

I'll begin by saying this isn't another nebulous post about my opinions on things.  Rather, it's a more concrete post about my opinions.  Opinions that are much more easily expressed in words.  Opinions that you will probably understand.  Regardless of whether you understand them or not, you will undoubtedly read them, giving me great freedom on what I consider worthwhile for including in this post.

I'll begin with some pictures to whet your appetite.  Or rather distract you from the dry main course that is yet to come.  The picture to the right is a coffee place I went with Tabitha.  The name really was the selling point; the coffee was pretty good too, but really how can you resist that name?  The picture to the left, which I'm going to request you open to see it in it's full glory, is a recent appearance in one of our most frequented locations in the fraternity house.  Oh, while we're on the topic of housing, I'm thinking of doing a video tour of my house at some point so you can see how big and awesome it is, but my vision for it requires a great deal of editing.  More time than I am willing to commit to right now.  Also, for the one other person reading this who cares, our scholarship chair has initials S.P.  If you guessed Sarah Palin, you're wrong.

Now, I'm tempted to introduce what I consider will be bland reading for the majority of you but my better judgment tells me to check off the other smaller topics on my list before jumping into the larger stuff that I will most likely ramble on and on about.  First, one of our pledges substitutes "sugar cakes" for all curse words.  Did I mention that he's also an African American (is this the proper way to identify him?  You'll see why I ask in a sec) man from England (see?) with a hell of an accent.  Also, his name is Americo Congo.  You're all jealous I know.

Second, and lastly before I start rambling, I finally had intellectual talks about literature over dinner with Cole Ms.T!  I know it took me a year, but hey better late than never.  I hesitate to go into great detail about what we spoke of because it would probably reveal how inept I've become e.g. forgetting the technical term "frame story" and merely described it as "a story within a story" BUT I will say that a comparison of Conrad's writing style to other more recent authors was one of the topics we covered.  We'll see if I end up borrowing Lord Jim from Cole.  Also,Happy Birthday.  Sorry I'm a little late.  I realized only too late to impersonally facebook message you, so I decided that I would address my social incompetence (cause that is what neglecting facebook is, right?) here in front of the entire interwebs.  

So now I begin my bland rambling.  There will be three points, all related, but separated for the purpose of structure.  The best things do indeed come in threes.  First, we (the Berkeley Chemical Engineers class of 2015, around 100 people) take every opportunity to compare ourselves to other universities' Chemical Engineering departments.  Now, I personally do not do this, but I know all of you can imagine the type of person that would do this and Berkeley cultivates many of these fine fellows.  Well, when I saw a post about MIT's ChemE department on our facebook page, I immediately assumed it was another (last week was making fun of UCLA ChemE) tirade about how hard we have it here compared to other colleges.  When I clicked it though I was pleasantly surprised. It was merely a funny exam question.  I found it funny at least.  Take a looksie.

Second, continuing along the line of Chemical Engineering, I'd like to read a sentence from my ChemE 140 Process Analysis course textbook that I found rather intimidating to say the least.  "Thus, the student addresses such problems as the design of a feedback level controller, membrane separation and hemodialysis, optimal design of a process with chemical reaction and separation, washout in a bioreactor, kinetic and mass transfer limits in a two-phase reactor, and the use of a membrane reactor to overcome equilibrium limits on conversion."  Needless to say, I'm scared at how much information is being covered in this one semester class.  It's going to be a rough ride.

Third, and lastly in my journey to describe Cal's ChemE program, I would like to share a pdf that I read over the weekend.  It is by far the best assigned reading I have ever been given in college.  Now, I do not doubt, rather I affirm, that almost all of you will not share my opinion, however this pdf single-handedly changed my opinion on my major.  I know now for sure that ChemE is what I want to do.  The design (instead of analysis) portion of ChemE that is covered by this document is something I really find fun to do.  So yay me.  I don't expect anyone to read this fully, and I expect maybe two at most to get past a couple of pages, but regardless I thought I would share it.  For the people who don't even open it I'll share a little tidbit I found funny.


2.4 Chemical Process Design and Creative Problem Solving
Context: A process to purify heptane.
Concepts:  Separation based on melting points, separation by chemical reactivity, and defining the
real problem.
Defining Question: How does one get down off an elephant?


Quite the defining question if I do say so myself.  So that's about it for my week.  Hope all is well with you guys.  I finally got to posting on my actual day after three weeks, woot woot.  Talk to you next week!

Jason

 * Unfortunately, sharing this pdf turns out to be harder than expected.  If you are really that curious to read it, which I doubt most people are, email me and I can send it to you.