At the end of Summer 2021, I got the opportunity to visit the Space Coast with my boyfriend and his family. It was very neat to see so many rockets and capsules at KSC in person, and I think I will most certainly be back one day to view a rocket launch in person!
Injection Molding at the Chicago Field Museum
A week ago I went to the Field Museum in Chicago for the first time with my boyfriend, and by far my favorite part was a little bit of electromechanical history that was tucked into some choice exhibits. What I’m talking about are the handful or so of Mold-A-Rama machines that the museum has, which for $3 spit out your own custom model of a dinosaur, monkey, or other such exhibit on display. These catch your eye for multiple reasons: the long lines, the loud gentle hum of the machine, and the little brightly colored figurines everyone around the museum is carrying. Not only that, but they all seem to be in perfect condition, despite being nearly 50 years old, and used daily.
The way that these machines work, is that after paying a small fee, it will put two metal blocks together to form a mold, and then inject ABS plastic into the gap between the mold to form the shape. Once this process is done, the molding blocks separate, and a cool little spatula scrapes off your injection molded figurine into a little collection bin. This is shown in the video below:
This video is from the famous and sprawling history of time exhibit at the Field museum, which chronicles the evolution on life on Earth in its entirety. It seemed fitting to thus get an injection molded T-rex as a memento of the whole thing. So, if you’re ever in a location with one of the 144 currently existing (thanks Wiki) Mold-A-Rama machines in the US, I would highly encourage you to get one, since it’s just a really cool snapshot of history. I’ve heard there is pretty cool space shuttle one out there too!
This also reminded me of a conversation I recently got to have with the head PM of Microsoft’s Garage in Cambridge, where I learned that he had made a public art installation in which a 3D printer printed out little rooster figurines and dispensed them for free to the public. I would like to think that something like that is the modern influence of the Mold-A-Rama machine, and I hope these continue to stick around for a long time.
Day Flight to Columbus, IN
I was just wrapping up work this past Friday when I saw a message on my phone from the Purdue Pilots Discord. . . for an open seat on a flight happening the next day! The offer came from Cesare, who as I learned on the flight is a very nice and talented person, researcher, teacher, pilot, and overall jack of all trades with a PhD and multiple masters degrees who specializes in topics such as robotics, controls, algorithms, and systems.
We departed from KLAF in West Lafayette in a Piper Warrior in the morning and made our way south towards Columbus. On our way, we flew right by downtown Indy and I got to learn all about the flight controls and what it’s like to fly a plane, with Cesare even performing some cool maneuvers like some 60 degree banked turns. Once in Columbus we explored the airport there which happened to have a neat little museum that I procured some neat books from. On our way back, we encountered the interesting problem of vapor lock upon attempting to start the engine, which is where exterior heat causes fuel within the engine to become vapor which hinders actual liquid fuel from entering the engine upon startup. After some debugging however, we were able to depart and make our way back to Purdue. The ride back was also neat because we got some light rain, and flew directly over the Indy airport! Besides that, the landing approach for KLAF goes right over Purdue, which is always neat to see from the air. Overall we logged around 2.5 hours of flight time, and I put some of my favorite photos from the trip below. I think it’s safe to say I now need to find the time (and the money) to get my pilots license, because this experience was just so much fun.
Pittsburgh on Super8
Right before COVID really hit, I was lucky enough to visit Pittsburgh and stay with my boyfriend. Below is some footage from the whole endeavor:
The Way Back Home: Dublin to Philadelphia to Los Angeles
While making my pilgrimage back home, I neglected to both document and write about it, since I was very tired, and also just taking in my last moments on this wonderful trip. However, I still want to summarize it here, so the complete narrative of my trip will be here for me to read and reflect upon later on.
On April 5th, I woke up in the hostel in Dublin and hopped on the Airlink bus to get to the airport. From there, I went through security, which involved a two-step process in which I basically went through US customs before getting on the plane, so when I landed in Philadelphia I could walk off the plane as if it were a domestic flight. From there I got on the flight, which was maybe the most pleasant experience I have ever had on a flight. Over the course of the 7 ish hour flight I watched multiple episodes of How I Met Your Mother, the new movie Free Solo, Call Me By Your Name, and read my book about Kevin Mitnick. Besides the stellar entertainment, the food was actually really good too; my favorites were the mid-flight ice cream break, and the mini vegetable curry hand pies.
Once in Philadelphia, I Ubered to my older sister’s apartment, and immediately crashed. I woke up sometime around 4 AM, and read my book until I left around 9. Then I walked around the neighborhood and stopped at a cute small bagel place, where I had a really good BBQ Lox bagel sandwich, and picked up a rainbow bagel with birthday cake cream cheese for the flight. Then I took an Uber to the Philadelphia airport, and got on my flight to Los Angeles. There were many little kids, all of whom really loved to clap and bang their little fists against things within the plane. You can imagine how that flight went.
However once I landed and saw my parents I was really happy to be home. I felt like I could have stayed in Dublin or Manchester for many more months, but it was nice to see my family again after being in a new place for so long. After a 2 hour long car ride back to Claremont, I was able to finally say I was home.
It is now the day after I got back(Sunday, April 7th). I’m getting back into the swing of things, and preparing to return back to school since today is the last day of Spring Break. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to go on this trip, and feel like I am now refreshed and ready to end high school. I really feel great, and am so excited to start some new projects and see what the future has in store.